A method for tuning an antenna includes cutting a portion of a metal pattern molded with a plastic insert to adjust electrical characteristics of the antenna. Tuning can be performed by cutting the metal pattern or by cutting the completed antenna including both the metal pattern and the plastic insert.
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1. An antenna comprising a molded plastic spacer and a metal insert fabricated using micro-insert molding processes, the metal insert including one or more tuning mechanisms for tuning electrical characteristics of the antenna, the one or more tuning mechanisms including
one or more primary slots cut in the antenna; and
one or more secondary slots cut in the antenna in intersection with at least some of the one or more primary slots.
13. A method for tuning an antenna, the method comprising:
applying an initial test condition to the antenna;
measuring antenna response to the initial test condition;
cutting a portion of a metal pattern molded with a plastic insert to adjust electrical characteristics of the antenna;
applying a next test condition to the antenna;
measuring antenna response to the next test condition; and
repeatedly cutting, applying and measuring until the electrical characteristics of the antenna are within a tolerance range.
2. The antenna of
one or more slots cut in the metal insert of the antenna.
3. The antenna of
4. The antenna of
5. The antenna of
6. The antenna of
mismatched geometries of the two or more arms.
7. The antenna of
intact portions of the two or more arms, the intact portions remaining after sacrificial material has been cut away.
8. The antenna of
one or more fingers extending from the body and configured to be cut away from the body.
9. The antenna of
10. The antenna of
11. The antenna of
one or more tuning straps linking portions of the metal insert and configured to be cut to tune the electrical characteristics of the antenna.
12. The antenna of
a slot extending between portions of the metal insert; and
tuning straps bridging the slot and configured to be cut to selectively extend the length of the slot.
14. The method of
15. The method of
17. The method of
18. The method of
19. The method of
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This application is related to U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/364,502 entitled “Method For Fabrication of Miniature Lightweight Antennas,” filed Mar. 15, 2002 in the names of Greg S. Mendolia, William E. McKinzie III and John Dutton and commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application; U.S. application Ser. No. 10/263,142 entitled “Method Of Manufacturing Antennas Using Micro-Insert-Molding Techniques,” filed Oct. 2, 2002 in the names of Greg S. Mendolia and Yizhon Lin; and U.S. application Ser. No. 10/211,731 entitled “Miniature Reverse-Fed Planar Inverted F Antenna,” filed Aug. 2, 2002 in the names of Greg S. Mendolia, John Dutton and William E. McKinzie III and commonly assigned to the assignee of the present application, all of which related applications are incorporated herein in their entirety by this reference.
This invention relates generally to manufacturing antennas repeatably in high volume for a variety of applications and integration environments. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of mechanically tuning antennas for low-cost, volume production.
There are various realizations of internal antennas for portable devices, but a select few embodiments are most common due to the need for low cost and reproducible manufacturing approaches. Internal antennas are those contained wholly within a radio product, as distinct from external antennas such as whip antennas or antennas that may be extended from an internal stowed position to an active position. These antennas are typically small, but there is no well defined upper limit to the size and form factor of such antennas.
Antennas are often fabricated using stamped metal draped over plastic, patterned fiberglass (FR4) Printed Circuit Board (PCB) material, or metallized and patterned plastic.
A second example of prior art antenna construction uses insert molded plastic. One material which may be used is Liquid Crystal Polymer (LCP) for the molded plastic and plated copper for the insert metal. Other materials may be substituted for the LCP and copper as required by particular design and product requirements. The LCP can withstand high temperatures, and is compatible with standard Surface Mount Technologies (SMT) for assembly. Micro-injection molding the antenna allows tight mechanical tolerance control of all dimensions of the antenna.
Manufacturers of wireless devices such as radiotelephone handsets, personal digital assistants (PDA's) and laptop computers are constantly pressured to reduce the size and cost of their products. Existing antenna solutions often shift frequency response when they are integrated into products. More seriously, the amount of frequency shift is different for each application, and is often different for very similar applications. For instance, an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) which produces laptop computers may have many different laptop models, or platforms. Current antennas would “de-tune” by a different amount for each platform, or for different mounting locations within one given platform. This forces the OEM to carry multiple part numbers of antennas for each integration into these multiple model numbers. This drives product cost upwards due to increased inventory requirements, lower economies of scale, and increased complexity and logistics associated with multiple antenna solutions.
Often, there are extensive up-front tooling costs to manufacture antennas, especially if the antennas are molded out of plastic. This tooling cost is a significant portion of the total cost of the antenna. If slightly different antennas are needed for each and every application, the antenna's unit cost would be prohibitive. Hence, there is a real need for either an antenna that is less sensitive to installation effects, or an antenna that can be easily modified during production so that tooling costs are not affected.
By way of introduction, the presently disclosed invention proposes a simple way to re-center an antenna's frequency response without additional tooling costs. An antenna includes a molded plastic spacer and a metal insert fabricated using micro-insert molding processes. The metal insert includes one or more tuning mechanisms for tuning electrical characteristics of the antenna. A method for tuning an antenna includes cutting a portion of a metal pattern molded with a plastic insert to adjust electrical characteristics of the antenna.
The foregoing summary has been provided only by way of introduction. Nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on the following claims, which define the scope of the invention.
The proposed antenna departs from the antenna shown in
The antenna 200 includes a molded plastic spacer 202 and a metal insert 204. The plastic spacer 202 is configured for mounting to a printed circuit board (PCB) 206 to maintain the metal insert 204 a predetermined distance from a ground plane, such as a ground plane of the PCB 206. The antenna 200 is fabricated by joining the metal insert 204 and the plastic spacer 202 in a micro-injection-molding process. Additional features of this antenna are disclosed in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/263,142 entitled “Method of Manufacturing Antennas Using Micro-Insert-Molding Techniques,” filed Oct. 2, 2002 in the names of Greg S. Mendolia and Yizhon Lin.
As can be seen in
The metal insert 204 is formed by patterning a metal conductor to the required antenna design. The metal insert 204 is a generally planar, unitary, conductive device. In one embodiment, the metal insert is fabricated from copper plated with a common finish such as nickel, tin or gold. In other embodiments, other conductive components, even non-metallic conductors or dielectric components, may be substituted for all or part of the metal insert 204.
Patterning in one embodiment is accomplished by etching, cutting or stamping the metal conductor. Etching may be achieved by, for example, a chemical photolithographic process. Devices and processes for patterning the metal insert 204 are well known or may be readily adapted to particular requirements.
The challenge for most internal antennas used in portable wireless electronics is to minimize the size requirements while keeping cost and performance at acceptable levels. This size constraint limits the electrical bandwidth of the internal antennas, often barely being able to cover the frequency band of interest. Therefore, any variation of the antenna's frequency response will result in a shift in performance upwards or downwards in frequency. This frequency shift results in antenna performance that is not centered in the desired band, and hence a failure to meet specification will cause the part to be rejected.
Antennas radiate at frequencies which are dependant on their geometry, their height above the ground plane, and the dielectric constant of the materials that they are made of. Manufacturing antennas using micro-insert molding virtually eliminates variations in these geometries, resulting in a very repeatable fabrication of antennas. The electrical performance of the antenna is mainly determined by the metal insert and its position, and not the plastic used to capture the insert. The plastic insert is there only to hold the metal in place to exacting dimensions.
However, even if an antenna is manufactured perfectly, and its frequency response as tested in the factory is within specifications, there can often be a shift in frequency response depending on components near the antenna when it is mounted in the final product. Other surface mount components adjacent to the antenna on the main PCB, components mounted under the antenna, and even the product's housing if located close enough to the antenna (for example, within ˜1.0 mm) will cause a frequency shift, usually downwards to a lower frequency. In body worn products such as hands-free ear buds and cell phones a frequency shift can occur if any part of the user's body is close enough to the antenna. This loading effect can be reduced partly by the electrical design of the antenna, but will still remain to some degree.
If the frequency shifts due to the above factors are known for a given application or product platform, the antenna design can be modified to accommodate for the shift, so that the final frequency response when the antenna is installed in the product is on target. However, most plastic antennas are fabricated in a way such that these design changes would result in substantial hard-tooling cost and time delays in being able to produce in volume.
Producing antennas using micro-insert molding techniques allows a great deal of flexibility in the design of antennas. The mold that accepts the lead frame is very flexible in terms of what the metal pattern that the mold accepts can look like. The lead frames in some embodiments are produced in a progressive die stamping operation. Changing one or more of the operations in the progressive die can tune the antennas without changing the process at the micro-insert molders or causing a large retooling operation at the stamping house.
The resonant frequency of the RFPIFA using the metal pattern 500 can be changed by changing the length of the slot 502, 504 that is cut down the middle of the RFPIFA. In
In other embodiments, the antenna metal pattern 600 may include one or more primary slots and one or more secondary slots. The pattern and intersection of the primary and secondary slots may be adjusted to tune various electrical characteristics of the antenna. For example, enlarging the secondary slot 602, 604 is equivalent to inserting lumped series inductance into the RFPIFA. As the length of the slot is increased, the resonant frequency of the antenna is reduced. In particular embodiments, a single antenna can have multiple slots or a pattern of slots such as the primary slots 502, 504 and the secondary slots 602, 604, to increase the tuning range of the antenna.
Stamping tools can be made to have an adjustable cutting operation that could be used to change the length of one of the arms of the metal pattern 700 for an RFPIFA of FIG. 7. The metal pattern 700 in the embodiments of FIGS. 7(a) and 7(b) includes a slot 502, 504. Also, the metal pattern includes a cut 702, 704 respectively in which a portion of the metal pattern has been removed or cut away. The intact portion of the metal pattern is illustrated in the drawing. A sacrificial portion has been cut away, leaving the intact portion. In FIG. 7(a), the cut 702 has a width C. In FIG. 7(b), the cut 704 has a width C′. Changing the width of the cut from C to C′ causes the resonant frequency of the RFPIFA to increase. The cut can extend through the thickness of the RFPIFA, including the metal pattern and the plastic spacer on which the metal pattern 700 is molded or otherwise formed, or the cut can only extend through the metal pattern leaving the dielectric plastic substantially intact. The cut produces mismatched geometries of the two arms. In other embodiments, the antenna may be separated into more than two arms, each having its own geometry chosen to tune the antenna.
This method of tuning is very similar to the method described in FIG. 7. However, the antenna of
The tuning process may be implemented automatically by test equipment, for example using a laser or other cutting device to remove fingers 802 and tune a resonance characteristic, such as resonant frequency, of the antenna made using the metal pattern 800. A method for testing the antenna begins with all fingers 802 intact. An initial test condition is applied to the antenna. Subsequently, fingers 802 may be removed sequentially to adjust the resonant characteristics of the antenna. For example, fingers may be removed in a left to right sequence in the embodiment shown in FIG. 8. Alternatively, depending on the response of the antenna to the initial test condition, individual fingers 802 or groups of fingers 802 may be removed to adjust the antenna response. A repeated process of cutting metal, applying a test condition and measuring the antenna's response may be applied until electrical characteristics of the antenna are within a tolerance range. The automatic test equipment may use a table of known performance characteristics to select fingers to remove to adjust the tuning of the antenna.
In the illustrated embodiment, the fingers 802 extend from an external perimeter of the antenna. In other embodiments, an internal perimeter may be formed by designing the antenna with a slot or other aperture having an internal perimeter. The fingers may extend from the internal perimeter.
One way that the match could be altered for better in-situ performance on a production part would be to introduce a slot with variable length between the feed and the short. Thus, in FIG. 9(a), a slot 902 separates the feed and the short. The distance D between the feed and the short is due at least in part to the slot 902. In FIG. 9(b), a slot 904 separates the feed and the short. The distance D′ between the feed and the short due is at least in part to the slot 904.
By introducing a slot such as the slots 902, 904, resonant characteristics including the resonant frequency of the antenna are lowered as the length of the slot is increased. Thus, an antenna using the metal pattern 900 of FIG. 9(b) will have a lower resonant frequency than an antenna using the otherwise identical metal pattern 900 of FIG. 9(a). More importantly in some applications, some control is afforded over the match of the antenna by varying the length of the slot.
Moreover, the length of the slot may be varied dynamically during a final test operation, using a laser or other cutting tool. An initial test condition may be provided to test the antenna initially, and then one or more cuts made to vary the slot length and the distance between the feed and short. Subsequent test conditions may be applied to the antenna and performance measurements taken until a desired antenna characteristic is obtained.
Measured results demonstrate how effective this method of tuning antennas can be. In one embodiment, an RFPIFA can be tuned from a center frequency of 2.95 GHz down to well below 2.44 GHz by adjusting the length of the slot in the center of the antenna.
FIG. 10(a) shows an antenna 1000 that has not yet been tuned. In FIG. 10(b), the lowest two tuning straps that bridge the two halves of the antenna 1000 have been cut away to lower the resonant frequency of the RFPIFA, leaving cut tuning straps 1010.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that the disclosed embodiments provide an improved method and apparatus for mechanically tuning an antenna. The environment an antenna is placed in will significantly affect the antenna's resonant characteristics including resonant frequency. The mechanical tuning mechanisms illustrated herein and extensions thereof will allow a single production tool to produce antennas that will work in many different environments. The process used also cuts down the amount of time needed to get a customized antenna solution into volume production because the tooling already exists to make the parts. Only a small adjustment in the production tooling is needed in order to produce a new part for a customer.
While a particular embodiment of the present invention has been shown and described, modifications may be made. It is therefore intended in the appended claims to cover such changes and modifications which follow in the true spirit and scope of the invention.
Scott, James, Mendolia, Greg S.
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Jan 02 2003 | MENDOLIA, GREG S | e-Tenna Corporation | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 013657 | /0747 | |
Jan 02 2003 | SCOTT, JAMES | e-Tenna Corporation | ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS | 013657 | /0747 | |
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